David Guerra | Hi-Lo Store

The clothing store follows the High and Low style, in a mix of opposites with recognized, young, conceptual and basic brands. The concept extends for the interior architecture, in a contrast of colors, materials and sensations. The front view, in latticework 40x40cm, has a metallic pinky red beam. In the area of clothing exposition, the lightness and romanticism were explored by using the colors white, silver and dry golden. Contrasts between French wallpapers on the screens, the buttoned fabric in the service area and the work in lace-trimmed on the wall, made of Tetra Park boxes by the artist Léo Piló, who coordinates the Belo Horizonte paper collectors community, make the environment gentle for choosing clothes. In the dressing-rooms area, the red and pink colors assume the role of seduction, glamour, passion and sensuality, the transformation of a star. Every star has a stage. Red curtains, buttoned panels, indirect lightning, multiple mirrors, satin sofa, vintage chandelier and bookshelf with stylist feet create a scenario, where the protagonist is the customer.

Short description about the project execution: reconstruction or project started from the bignning?

In the local, there was a store that, 10 years ago, used to be a beach clothes store. Later, it came through a reconstruction to be a store for men, which changed a lot of things. Then, after this reconstruction, the place became an outlet, without having any kind of aesthetics concern. The place was badly damaged, so it took almost 2 years to find someone interested on renting it, even if it has a privileged localization. “When my customers asked me to help them finding a place, on April 2010, I confess I became a little bit apprehensive: the store was between two others, in the back of the terrain. Even the customers took time to decide, only on December they rented the place and I started making the projected”.

The customers wanted a store with a romantic characteristic, but in a modern interpretation. A delicate store, smooth, feminine, which makes the clients feel comfortable and, at the same time, feel the seduction, glamour and passion environment, giving the store two sides: the romantic and the seductive. The HI-LO is a store of clothes and accessories, which follows the High & Low style, characterized by the mix of opposite items from recognized and conceptual brands, mixed with young brands and basic items for the day-by-day. The concept, then, is based on the High & Low concept, making the architecture translates it and relates the low with romanticism and high with passion, desire and seduction.

The first challenge was the façade covered in a flora latticework 40x40cm, which came from São Paulo. The customers wanted something romantic for the façade, they didn’t want anything related to grids and also didn’t want to spend too much. The solution of the latticework was perfect, however, the foreman asked for 2 months to execute only the façade. The customers almost gave up, but we came up with an engineer that would do this work in 15 days, although he delivered it in 30 days only.

The second challenge was the panel in the clothes rack area. It is a work in Tetra Park boxes, made by the artist Léo Piló and his community of paper collectors. The idea was to get into a model that wouldn’t remind a bad quality material, but would get into something interesting, like the profile of the store. After we get through a model, the difficulty was to select the perfect used boxes, without having any kind of creased. The last challenge was the red chandelier. The budget didn’t allow us to buy a red crystal chandelier, so, we decided to buy a more popular crystal chandelier and we hired an artist to paint it in red.

The project uses materials that explore the High and Low concept, so, at the same time, you can see recycled materials and lower price, as the chandelier and the Tetra Park panel, and you can see chic products, such as the French wallpaper. Keeping the concept of the store, the project explores the neutral colors, contrasting with the red variations, giving values to the simple and sophisticated.

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